German-American Discourse on Politics and Culture

August 22, 2019

How long would it take for your typical 21st century middle-class man to completely lose his identity? Approximately 36 hours, according to Lukas Bärfuss's disturbing novel Hagard. On an early spring afternoon in an unnamed city (which strongly resembles Zurich), a successful real-estate broker name Philip in his late forties steps out onto the street while waiting for a client and spots a young woman exiting an office building. He can see her only from behind, but something about her attracts his attention and he begins to follow her. After all, he has time to kill before his meeting, and doesn't have to pick up his young son from his Mexican nanny Belinda. And so he begins to follow the woman through the city streets, losing track of time, never getting close enough to arouse her suspicion, and never catching a glimpse her face. At first Philip makes a pretense of keeping to his schedule - and his identity - by making excuses to his secretary Vera via voice mail messages. But as he follows the woman on the commuter train and stands outside her suburban apartment building as she retires for the evening, what started as a lark - a distraction from the boring routine of his life, perhaps with erotic intentions - gradually becomes an existential quest. And Philip is on auto-pilot as his former self begins to recede:

The suspense builds as Philip jettisons or loses the basics necessities of 21st century life: his wallet, credit cards, even his shoe, and finally his BMW. All the while the battery on his smartphone is draining to zero. He is cut off. In the background the narrator tries to make sense of Philips actions as he muses on the decline of civilization, alluding to disturbing current events such as the vanishing of the Malaysian airliner in the Pacific. At times one senses that the narrator is stalking Philip the same way Philip is stalking the unknown woman.

The first two-thirds of Hagard are completely focused on Philip and his self--destructive quest. Then suddenly Lukas Bärfuss shifts the narrative to the story of the Japanese mathematician who thought he had solved Fermat's Last Theorem, but couldn't prove it. And then the backstory of the petty-criminal turned taxi driver whose life intersects with Philip's in his last hours, as well as the story of Vera's sordid affair. It is not entirely clear to me what these Nebengeschichten - side stories - add to the narrative other than to interrupt or retard the suspense before the the final, tragic finale. But then again, there is much that I still don't understand - such as the title Hagard, which, as far as I could learn a French term for a bird of prey, such as a falcon. Hagard is a provocative novel (or novella - relatively short), brilliantly written, and I will no doubt reread at some point.

Lukas Bärfuss was awarded the prestigious Georg-Büchner-Preis for 2019.

August 20, 2019

The other day Angela Merkel held a forum in the eastern city of Stralsund - a stronghold of the neo-Nazi Alternative for Germany party (AfD). An AfD local politician confronted the chancellor, accusing her of instituting a "dictatorship" and suppressing freedom of expression in Germany. Her calm response to this outburst was impressive, and shows that she really is still the leader of the free world .

As Christian Stöcker writes in Der Spiegel, the AfD politician espouses a völkisch worldview that at its root is totalitarian:

(This represents the völkisch Ideology. It maintains, in short, that there exists a genetically - rather than geographically or legally - determined Geman Volk. This "German Volk" is better than other Volk. Less criminal, for example. It's the foreigners that are criminal!. Once one has embraced this ideology of the superior German Volk - about which one cannot speak openly, the world suddenly seems very different. One is now in possession of an eternal truth - everyone else is living a lie. This behavior resembles that of fanatics and "Heretics", or apostates).

What must have enraged the AfD politician was Angela Merkel's calm support for democratic pluralistic society. Pluralism is anathema to the völkisch worldview:

August 11, 2019

The European Central Bank is now charging negative interest rates- currently at -0.4%. - on its debt instruments. Why would an investor pay an institution to hold its cash at a negative return? Cutting interest rates was initially used as a stimulus to investment and employment across Europe. But now there does not seem to an end to the downward spiral. This poses a dilemma for the typical German saver, who typically shuns equities for the "safety" of government bonds and bank savings accounts:

One would think a rational investor would change his/her behavior in the face of ruinous yields and at least diversify an investment portfolio with stocks. But that doesn't seem to be happening. German savers are stubbornly risk-adverse.

Negative interest rates could contribute to deflationary environment, which - as we've seen in Japan - is hard to reverse, or even control Once deflation takes hold, a severe recession would surely follow. Also, German savers begin to believe that the ECB is punishing them for their frugal ways, further turning popular sentiment against the EU. The political winner in such a scenario would be the far-right populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party.